Eon Misleading Quotes? Please Help!

Premier_2

Energyhelpline, as an example, appears to include the annual discount.

e.g.
1. current suppliers/tariffs: BG (gas), Eon (electricity - E7) both standard tariffs, pay quarterly on receipt of bill
2. new supplier, Scottish Power, standard, nsc, pay quarterly on receipt of bill (by DD)
3. Annual consumption: gas (12,000kwh p.a.) electricity (4000 kwh p.a. 25% at E7)
4. Region: Eastern

Current price: £1137 p.a.

New price: £872 p.a.

Saving declared: £266 (23%)
(now I know 1137-872 = 265, but that's a rounding error)

Now according to my calculation, the Scottish Power cost would be £871.56 which DOES include the £150 prompt pay discount and the £10.50 dual fuel discount.

Edit: I see what you mean
As the OP is currently with SP, the current cost is quoted as £1022 p.a. because there is no way for the website to know if the customer is paying promptly enough to secure the discount.
However, in this case, it does clearly say:

Prompt payment discount of £150.00 per year (not included in your savings figure).

Since the discount is only available if a customer pays within 10 days from the date on the bill, and in my experience of Scottish Power, it takes 7-9 days from that date to actually receive the bill, it very difficult to secure the discount (unless you pay by DD).

If the customer is paying quarterly by DD, then the £150 saving is included and the total annual price is stated as £872

Mister_Big

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Brian wrote: »

Hi Mr Big,

I don’t know a great deal about how door to door sales are calculated or made so I’ve had to make some calls to get some info on this.

When the agent went through the sale and filled in the details on her laptop, she will have selected your current supplier and your current tariff from a list (I would assume she asked you for the name of your tariff).

The tariff details we have recorded for each company are accurate and importantly have the relevant discounts built in. :beer:

Things like prompt payment, which are only paid if you pay on time are included, it assumes all customers will pay on time.

So as long as the correct tariff is picked from the list the quote should be accurate.

Hope this helps.

Brian

Thanks for the reply Brian, that's very helpful. :T

Do you think you could clarify for me please Brian if this has always been Eon's policy (relevant discounts built in for door to door quotes) or whether this is something that has recently been changed? Is it possible that when I was quoted a month or so ago that the discounts were not built in to the quote? Hope you don't have to make too many calls this time to find out!

I honestly believed that the saleswoman was being genuine as she showed me everything she was doing on her laptop. I know some of you guys will think this is naive of me and that I probably live in a big gullible tower, but I'm convinced she wasn't doing a job on me.

Also, I went to the Eon website to do a quote for me (I spend roughly £500 per year on electricity and the same on gas) and the cheapest product only saved me £12 per year, which clearly isn't anywhere near the £180ish annual discount I was shown and is about as much use to me as a paraplegic trapeze artist. :eek:

Thanks for the help so far guys. I'm sure I'll get to the bottom of this eventually.

disgrunted

hey its seems like evreyone maybe missing the point here. If you reckon you would be saving £180ish but now its only £12 sounds like scottish powers rates have dropped to be more competitive.
anyway maybe i will rejoin this debate later i am off to Iona, sure to find a G&T or two

Mister_Big

disgrunted wrote: »

hey its seems like evreyone maybe missing the point here. If you reckon you would be saving £180ish but now its only £12 sounds like scottish powers rates have dropped to be more competitive.
anyway maybe i will rejoin this debate later i am off to Iona, sure to find a G&T or two

Good point! It does look that way, but I'm assured that Scottish Power's rates have not changed and so that's why I want to know if Eon have changed the way they present their quotes.

Where exactly is Iona? I've never heard of it, not that it makes a difference!

disgrunted

If it doesn't make a difference why ask. Iona is a lovely place in scotland (clearly you are from england) where I learned to play Golf played 51 holes got 2 birdies learnedthe Xylophone and met a lovely lady in Uniform . So I must say iona has made a difference to my life and has certainly enhanced it. You should come visit one day I am sure you will have a riot. Ps sorry this has nothing to do with your post.

Mister_Big

disgrunted wrote: »

If it doesn't make a difference why ask. Iona is a lovely place in scotland (clearly you are from england) where I learned to play Golf played 51 holes got 2 birdies learnedthe Xylophone and met a lovely lady in Uniform . So I must say iona has made a difference to my life and has certainly enhanced it. You should come visit one day I am sure you will have a riot. Ps sorry this has nothing to do with your post.

Hey, that's OK. Much as I'd like a specifc answer from Eon about this it doesn't look like they're going to bother which I can only assume means that I am right and they have previously been excluding competitor discounts from their quotes. Bunch of robbing bar stewards! :mad:

Hope you enjoy Iona. I'll give it a miss though. Don't think I'd feel safe there somehow. I don't really do riots. Bring on the Xylophones! :rotfl:

E.ON_Company_Representative

Mister_Big wrote: »

Do you think you could clarify for me please Brian if this has always been Eon's policy (relevant discounts built in for door to door quotes) or whether this is something that has recently been changed? Is it possible that when I was quoted a month or so ago that the discounts were not built in to the quote?

Hi Mr Big,

I'm not ignoring you, just had a busy Monday so far!

The programme used by the sales representatives, has been in use for a while, my colleague confirms that the current sales tool has had the discount information built in for a long time now.

No specific dates I'm afraid but it was confirmed that nothing to do with this system has changed for ages. So I'm sure everything will have been the case when you went through the sale. :cool:

I can also add that there is a process that our sales department/people follow when there are price changes.

For example if Scottish Power reduce a tariffs prices, there is no legal obligation for them to send this information to other suppliers. However if the other companies (or one company) requests the information they have to send it.

So the job of keeping the prices and discounts of other suppliers accurate for sales tools etc does lie with the supplier carrying out the comparison.

Again apologies for the delay.

Brian

E.ON_Company_Representative

Mister_Big wrote: »

Also, I went to the Eon website to do a quote for me (I spend roughly £500 per year on electricity and the same on gas) and the cheapest product only saved me £12 per year, which clearly isn't anywhere near the £180ish annual discount I was shown and is about as much use to me as a paraplegic trapeze artist. :eek:

Hi Mr Big,

In regards to this, as you recently switched to us you will, I'd have thought, already be on one of our most competitive tariffs, therefore getting an even better deal is unlikely.

I can't imagine you will be able to compare your current tariff from E.ON with other E.ON tariffs and find a further £180 saving, that would total £360 saving from your old Scottish Power tariff. :eek:

Is this what you meant or am I confusing myself?

Brian

Mister_Big

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Brian wrote: »

Hi Mr Big,

In regards to this, as you recently switched to us you will, I'd have thought, already be on one of our most competitive tariffs, therefore getting an even better deal is unlikely.

I can't imagine you will be able to compare your current tariff from E.ON with other E.ON tariffs and find a further £180 saving, that would total £360 saving from your old Scottish Power tariff. :eek:

Is this what you meant or am I confusing myself?

Brian

You're confusing yourself a bit!

The £12 saving (on Track & Con) was compared to what I was on with Scottish Power before. Whilst a saving of £12 is better than nothing, it's nowhere near the £180 I was shown!

I saw the girl input all the info correctly, pick the right company and product I was on and input my annual spend (Scottish Power, Dual Fuel, Quarterly Payments, No Standing Charge, £500 a year on both gas and electricity) and her laptop definitely showed that saving.

Something is wrong somewhere. Personally, I believe that the girl was genuine and that Eon themselves are the ones being a little economical with the truth, but I guess I'll never find out for sure! :mad:

Thanks for your reply anyway Brian.

disgrunted

hey mr big,
are you sure it was £180 and not £18, have to ask that question as i went and did the quotes on eon page as you described and get the same answers. I feel someone is certainly mistaken here, I cant see no logic in the quotes being so different now compared to a few weeks ago as there has been no changes in rates or discounts from either supplier, so you have either been misled or misquoted by Eon. Just for your info i have also put same figures into confused.com and get a saving of £84.51 for energy discount 4 but cant see track and con (as you call it), and on uswitch track and save will save you £110.56, I have done these quotes based in a area 18 region (south west scotland) and there may be slight differences in other parts of the uk. 1 quite important thing to note here is Eon website shows a saving of £12 uswitch shows a saving of £110.56, clearly uswitch dont include discounts ( i do not know the exact amount of discounts from scottish power). If you are certain that you with your own eyes seen a saving of £180(ish) and you are sure the pretty sales rep didnt con you into seeing something that wasnt actually there, I would guess that at some point eon also didnt take into account supplier discounts. Its a minefield out there and the only sure people that dont get ripped off are the energy companies.
I have also done test quotes with other suppliers then compared them to 3rd party sites and dont get the same answers (when we really should expect them to be the same) Eon is the only one whos website is showing a lot less of a saving. My own opinion is that no one filters into the equation other supplier discounts apart from eon, maybe they have just implemented this policy, (its the only logical answer to your query) Hats off to them if thats the case, an honest utility supplier woohoo!!
Also worth noting here is that the eon moderator here has stated that they have not changed there sales tool, so the bad news is after all this typing we are now back to square 1. Good luck in finding out the answer cos as the yorkshire men say well oil beef ocked